europan7

theme
Population

Grigny,
programme / issues

France

conurbation / site

screens 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

25 500

Theme
An intervention is called for in part of the Grande Borne sector; a social housing district designed at the end of the 1960s as an alternative to the major post war housing estates of towers and bars. The challenge, in this overplanned urban area, is to design a new urban grid linking the district and the town, to programme new functions and seek out social mix. This is to be done in the context of a process of urban and social renewal to which the town has committed itself for the whole sector.

Location

Balance-Ellipse district, La Grande Borne

Study area

9 ha
Site area

2.5 ha

europan7
theme conurbation / site programme / issues

Grigny,

France

screens 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Conurbation
In the south of Greater Paris, Grigny was a farming village until the 1960s when the construction of a number of housing schemes radically modified both its urban and social structure. Grigny is no longer a village but a town; industrial valley, planted hillside, and resettled urbanised plateau, it is today crossed by the A6 motorway and the RN7 trunk road, and its territory is fractured. The town needs to be restructured in order better to link the different districts, compose a town centre on a communal scale, and enhance its environmental assets.

Site
The site corresponds to the southern sector of La Grande Borne social housing estate (3 700 dwellings), a development designed by Emile Aillaud at the end of the 1960s. Today, cut off and underprivileged, the neighbourhood is the object of an overall urban regeneration project. The site is made up of low-rise, curved blocks of flats, laid out around public amenities and pedestrian spaces. Linked to the rest of the estate to the north by a large green space, to the south it is edged by a major through road, and to the east by a motorway.

europan7
theme conurbation / site programme / issues

Grigny,

France

screens 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Programme
The urban grid must be restructured; and the exterior open spaces, on a more contextual scale, must be regenerated. Provision must also be made for neighbourhood social and cultural facilities. Some existing housing is to be converted to other uses, businesses or services, and existing housing is to benefit from a diversification in dwelling typology.

Issues

functional : Urban considerations must be aimed at opening up the site by means of a new

grid, and by programming new functions that will open up the neighbourhood to the dynamics initiated by development of the surroundings area. Parking must also be reorganised, the status of exterior spaces be clarified, all of this with the perspective of a partial privatisation of the open spaces. the resident population to upgrade, as well as to attract new inhabitants.

social : Proposals must encourage social mix by creating a diversity of homes, in order to enable
It is also important to improve the security and privacy of the block's ground-floor dwellings.

perceptual : The housing estate is symbolic of modern urban and architectural heritage,

whose potential is to be enhanced (scale of buildings, large landscaped public spaces, circulation that is fluid and safe for pedestrians). Proposals must be set in the perspective of an approach that secures environmental quality and sustainable development.

europan7
theme conurbation / site programme / issues

Grigny,

France

screens 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

europan7
theme conurbation / site programme / issues

Grigny,

France

screens 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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europan7
theme conurbation / site programme / issues

Grigny,

France

screens 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

europan7
theme conurbation / site programme / issues

Grigny,

France

screens 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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